Each year, ProMED-mail presents an award in honor of the anniversary of its founding in August 1994. We are pleased to announce the winners of this annual award is Dr. Maria Jacobs!

We are pleased to present the 2018 ProMED-mail Awards for Excellence in Outbreak Reporting on the Internet to one of our own, Dr. Maria Jacobs, who is our Senior Technical Editor.

The raw data that go into producing a ProMED report are often messy and error-laden. Maria and a team of copy editors take the raw material and, working with our team of subject matter expert moderators, craft and refine the posts that you receive by email, social media and on our website. Maria is a perfectionist and although our posts do not always achieve perfection, she works hard toward that goal. We try to make sure that case numbers, rates, dates, currencies, and other data make sense and are consistent. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, translations, URL links all need to be checked and validated. Maria maintains our Style Guide and strives to get the rest of the team to adhere to it. She does so with unfailing kindness, respect and wisdom.

Maria obtained an MD in her native Colombia. In 1984 she moved to Boston to continue her education and shortly after joined the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Maria became the International Society for Infectious Diseases’ (ISID) first full-time employee in 1988, as assistant to then Executive Director, Norman Stein. She was also scientific program coordinator for the International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID), and small grants manager, among other duties. In 1998, Maria moved to Zurich, Switzerland, but continued to collaborate with ISID in several capacities, including assistance during the ICID and translation of the 1st Spanish edition of “A Guide to Infection Control in the Hospital,” published in 2000. Between 2001 and 2004 Maria worked for ProMED-ESP as translator and copy editor. Maria has been ProMED’s Senior Technical Editor since 2007 and in 2018 is also collaborating with the ISID staff in the current edition of the “Guide to Infection Control in the Healthcare Setting.”

We are very grateful for her efforts on behalf of ProMED and are pleased to make this award to her.

Read about past ProMED awardees